Chapter 10: Birthday and kiss

When it was time to leave work, everyone in the secretarial department left one by one, but only Katherine was still working hard.

Anne Marie walked through Katherine's desk, patted gently her shoulder, and comforted her, "Dear Katherine, happy overtime."

Katherine looked at Anne with pitiful eyes, "Anne, you've been working here for three years. Boss is often cruel to everyone like this?”

Anne leaned into Katherine's ear and whispered, "Our boss is a workaholic. You also saw him sleeping in the office without coming home. Only you in our department were asked to work overtime, proofing that our boss favors you the most."

Is that called 'favor'? Katherine really did not dare to accept this favor!

After 7 pm, the whole working floor was left with only Katherine, who was diligently in front of the computer arranging schedules for Louis and the respected boss in his private room. If he had exploited her labor, she also made him work so hard that he wanted to die.

Creak!

The door to Louis's room suddenly opened from the inside. Katherine, who was secretly scolding Louis in her heart, suddenly felt guilty, she stood up and looked at him and said:

“Boss, do you need anything?”

Louis glanced at her, closed the door, and walked over to her. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, he said softly:

"It's past 7 o'clock and you don't know what to buy for dinner?"

Katherine thought he was asking me to buy him dinner, immediately picked up the phone, opened the food ordering app, and asked again, “Ah, I forgot. What do you want to eat?”

However, she misunderstood what he meant.

Louis lightly patted Katherine's forehead, then turned to leave, and said to her:

“Off work. Come along with me."

Katherine heard the word "off work", cheerfully turned off the computer, and quickly gathered her things to chase after him. Louis used an elevator that was dedicated to the chairman, CEO, and VIP partners when coming to exchange work. He watched Katherine hurrying toward him, the corner of his mouth curling into a faint smile, then pressed the button that kept the elevator door open to wait for her to enter. Both of them went straight to the basement parking.

“Boss, let me drive.”

"No need, take the seat next to me."

Louis coldly refused and took the driver's seat.

The Maybach car quickly left the company's headquarters, going into the crowd. The streets of city S were always full of people. This place was the most significant economic city in the country, although it was not the capital. People in other provinces come here to make a living, students come here to study. It seemed that everyone wanted to find a home in this place because only here can they see easily a bright future. However, someone wanted to leave, making Louis think he would never meet again.

Louis glanced at Katherine who was silent. Her face was very beautiful, her long eyelashes were curled, and her cherry lips were slightly parted, but her glittering eyes were now gone.

Louis knew she was trying to approach him and win his heart for sure because of the hard situation, but she didn't want to herself. At least in her words, there was never any genuine affection for him.

Recalling the day, the two of them were gifted students who were specially allowed to enter the university 2 years earlier and went to school together. Now, the position and distance of each person were so far away.

"Come on, get down."

Louis stopped in front of an Italian restaurant and gave the key to the security guard to park the car He put his hands in his pockets, straightened his back, and stepped inside the luxurious restaurant, which was lavishly decorated and brightly lit.

Katherine followed him, whispering, “Boss, you pay for this meal. One dish here equals my week's salary."

Louis did not answer. He followed the instructions of the waiter and sat down at the table arranged for him. Right after that, the waiter gave him the menu to order. He gestured to Katherine.

Katherine looked at the menu once, expertly ordering a few dishes according to his and her preferences. Of course, he and she had known each other for so long, she knew his preferences in the palm of her hand. That's why she was always confident, the right person to be his personal secretary was none other than her.

After ordering, Katherine returned the menu to the waiter and then politely thanked him. Turning to see that Louis was looking at her very attentively, she was a little surprised, pulling her hair to her ear and asking:

“You're satisfied with what I ordered? If you don't like something, I can tell the waiter to change it.”

The time they knew each other and fell in love was not short, but Louis never knew Katherine's family well, and neither did she. What Louis could tell from her personality and habits was that she came from a relatively wealthy family. For example, with ordering food at luxurious restaurants like this, she was never surprised but seemed very familiar with Western dishes.

"Alright…"

Louis paused for a moment, then continued:

“Seven years ago, where had you been?”

Katherine was drinking water, pausing for a second. She slowly put the glass of water on the table, looked into his deep eyes, and smiled slightly:

“I lived in M city.”

M city? Her family was native to S city, why did she come to M city? Even so, why did she have to hide it and then disappear so suddenly?

“So you know Vincent Blythe?” Louis asked.

"Yes. He and I were childhood friends.”

Louis was surprised in his heart. She had never talked about this with him before. Turns out that was why she and Vincent looked so close at the party, plus she smiled brightly at Vincent. Since meeting again, standing in front of him, Katherine had never smiled like that. All she showed off was flattery and a standard smile that looked extremely fake.

“Louis, I'm back this time… There's really no other way. I want to ask you to help me.”

"Help you?"

Katherine nodded.

“For what reason?”

The question that Louis asked was "For what reason?" rather than "help what?". He was asking her for an identity to ask for his help.

“I still can’t tell you clearly at the moment, but I want to grasp the weakness of the Hologram.”

“I don't know Katherine. She has no weight on me.”

Louis flatly refused.

She didn't know Louis's heart, didn't know how she could convince him to agree… Before meeting him, she thought she was ready enough. But since meeting again, she began to hesitate more. Once this trump card was overthrown, all her plans will be ruined.

"But I'm still me."

“Is that so?” Louis asked back with a sarcastic tone.

Fortunately, the waiter brought the food just in time to cut the tension between them. From that moment until they finished eating, the two of them didn't say a word to each other. Katherine wanted to ask for Louis's help, but she felt that there was always an invisible barrier between them that prevented her from openly opening her heart. More than anything, she was also afraid that she would pull him down the abyss with her.

After dinner, Louis took her to the apartment building where she currently lived. This apartment complex was not a high-class place, but the rent was not cheap either. As soon as Louis heard the name of the apartment building, he frowned.

“Thank you for bringing me home. Drive safe." After thanking Louis, she closed the door, preparing to go inside.

Louis suddenly got out of the car, handing her a carefully wrapped gift bag. This gift package looked like it had been prepared in advance, not conveniently bought at souvenir shops.

Katherine was surprised, she still didn't reach out to accept the gift when Louis said first, "Happy birthday."

Birthday? Katherine immediately opened her phone to check the calendar. Today was indeed her birthday, but since she changed her identity to Katherine Jeremy, she had also changed her birthday so she no longer cared about it.

“Thanks, I forgot…”

At this moment, Katherine's phone rang. Seeing a familiar name on the screen, she turned around and answered the phone. Vincent's voice sounded cheerfully on the other end of the line, "Elise, happy birthday. I'm in M city today, so I can't celebrate your birthday with you. We'll see each other next week."

Katherine laughed and replied, "I know, thank you."

Standing very close, Louis could hear Vincent's voice on the phone.

Turns out, one sentence 'happy birthday' from him could make her laugh like that?

Before Katherine had time to hang up, he pulled her closer, one hand grasped her chin and kissed her heady.

“Uhm… Uhm… Lou…is, wha…t…”

Katherine was suddenly kissed, unable to push him away, and ended up being pulled into the strong rhythm of this heady man!